We had plans to go in search of Chateaux today. Mike and Jude enjoyed the sumptuous breakfast buffet at the hotel before we set out.
We passed a beautiful field of sunflowers on the way . All the ones we have seen so far have been a bit past their prime and not shining bright and yellow. We stopped to photograph this one. The Sunflowers were giants, with giant bumblebees buzzing on them.They were beautiful.
Our first chateau was Langeais. It was quite interesting, we got to tour through and see the recreated rooms.
The second one was Villandy, with its spectacular gardens. We did the chateau first, it is really well set up. Then we moved onto the gardens, which we could see from inside the chateau. The gardens are amazing. There are 7 different sections and they are all immaculate. Gorgeous formal hedges, water gardens, vegetable and herb gardens, a maze, a sun garden in oranges and reds, a cloud garden in whites and blues and the woods, high above everything else. It really was lovely.
As we were leaving we noticed a wedding group arriving. The guests were all dressed in bright blue, the men had blue ties and the little girls were in white. The bride arrived in white, with the groom also in a white suit. They made a beautiful sight, Jude and I watched while the boys walked off and left us .
We decided to walk into the village down from the chateau and chose a restaurant, possibly the worst meal of the trip. Ken ordered saussicon and frites, expecting a delicious local French sausage. He got 2 hotdog sausages and a pile of oily fries. Mike had chicken and frites, an oily looking affair. My salad nicoise was ok, but not the finest produce. Jude's Croque Monsieur was pretty good. We didn't stay for dessert, but popped into the patisserie to buy some goodies!
We did a short stop at the Usse chateau. It is really pretty, like a Disney castle, but apparently not really worth the money to go inside.
We headed back to Chinon and enjoyed our tarts and cakes on the terrace of the hotel.
After a bit of rest we were back out and ready for a pre-dinner drink at one of the bars downstairs, then a walk through the village. At 8.30 we thought we had better find a restaurant. The one we wanted to go to looked like it was shutting down so we went back to the bar and found a table there. We all had really delicious meals. I had cod in parsley sauce. We did not have dessert!
One of the waiters was chatting and said all Australians were nice. He didn't believe us when we said all French people are nice too!
A very short walk to the hotel and off to bed. Another great day in another beautiful part of the country.


Steps 12,995
Kms walked 9.1